Business

No deal on Mets just yet

David Einhorn’s exclusive negotiating period with the Mets has expired, The Post has learned, although the two sides remain locked in talks and determined to hammer out the last few “gritty details” over the sale of a minority stake in the money-losing team.

Hedge-fund guru Einhorn said in late May that he had reached an agreement in principle to buy a stake in the cash-strapped franchise and that he and the Mets ownership — Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz — would enter into exclusive talks.

Under the proposed agreement, Einhorn will pay $200 million for a 33 percent piece of the Mets.

The talks were expected to be wrapped up by June 30 — but one week after the deadline are still not completed.

“The Mets ownership and David Einhorn are engaged in exclusive, positive discussions regarding an investment in the team,” a team spokesman said. Indeed, while the Mets are talking only to Einhorn, the legal exclusivity period has ended. The spokesman declined to address that issue.

The proposed deal reportedly includes an option that allows Einhorn to get paid back in several years while retaining a roughly 17 percent stake in the team as interest. That option also allows Einhorn to buy control of the Mets for $1 if his loan is not repaid.

The Mets in November took an emergency $25 million loan from Major League Baseball. Wilpon and Katz are looking to sell a piece of the team as operating capital dwindles.

The Mets’ cash crunch started after Wilpon and Katz lost $500 million in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. Shortly before the Mets reached an agreement in principle with Einhorn, Wilpon and Katz were in secret talks with an investor group from Japan that took a late interest in buying a minority stake in the team, two sources following the situation said.

Those talks, which were serious, ended simply because the Japanese investor needed more time to study the financials.